2021-02-27, 01:01 PM
(This post was last modified: 2021-02-27, 01:02 PM by NumberFive.)
Hello,
I have had a couple of these Astrometa DVB-T2 sticks for many years, and they have a Panasonic demod chip in them (2013 version). They work fantastically. One is on my main HTPC and produces hours of error free recordings every day.
I recently got another one, looks the same on the outside but it's the 2018 version, it has a Sony demod chip in it ("Sony guts!"). Unfortunately it has issues working in most programmes - it appears as though it is getting a very weak signal, lots of errors in it.
I had thought I'd just got a bad device, but I read online that I should try the bundled TV utility "TVRPlayer" and sure enough, that works and I can receive programmes loud and clear. The signal strength it reports is consistent for what I would expect on my various multiplexes.
So, there must be some weird non-standard quirk of the driver. It was cheap, and I had largely written it off until I saw this thread - https://forums.nextpvr.com/showthread.php?tid=58540 - Another NextPVR user appears to have this same "sony guts" version of the tuner and it's working okay with NextPVR.
You can see a history of these devices over on LinuxTV - https://linuxtv.org/wiki/index.php/Astrometa_DVB-T2
I did read somewhere that there may be an issue in the driver that it does not by default turn on the pre-amplifier on the board. That makes sense to me, as the issue does look like weak signal. I've no idea how to fix though.
Does anyone else have one of these? Could you perhaps share with me what version of the Windows drivers you are using? Did anyone else have this issue?
Thank you
I have had a couple of these Astrometa DVB-T2 sticks for many years, and they have a Panasonic demod chip in them (2013 version). They work fantastically. One is on my main HTPC and produces hours of error free recordings every day.
I recently got another one, looks the same on the outside but it's the 2018 version, it has a Sony demod chip in it ("Sony guts!"). Unfortunately it has issues working in most programmes - it appears as though it is getting a very weak signal, lots of errors in it.
I had thought I'd just got a bad device, but I read online that I should try the bundled TV utility "TVRPlayer" and sure enough, that works and I can receive programmes loud and clear. The signal strength it reports is consistent for what I would expect on my various multiplexes.
So, there must be some weird non-standard quirk of the driver. It was cheap, and I had largely written it off until I saw this thread - https://forums.nextpvr.com/showthread.php?tid=58540 - Another NextPVR user appears to have this same "sony guts" version of the tuner and it's working okay with NextPVR.
You can see a history of these devices over on LinuxTV - https://linuxtv.org/wiki/index.php/Astrometa_DVB-T2
I did read somewhere that there may be an issue in the driver that it does not by default turn on the pre-amplifier on the board. That makes sense to me, as the issue does look like weak signal. I've no idea how to fix though.
Does anyone else have one of these? Could you perhaps share with me what version of the Windows drivers you are using? Did anyone else have this issue?
Thank you
"It's better than a box!"